Record date versus last day to buy
The difference between the date on which the list of holders is fixed and the last day on which an exchange trade still reaches that list.
How to read the number
A buyer becomes an owner of record not on the day of the trade but when settlement completes. Two consequences follow: the share must be bought before the record date, and it may be sold on the next trading day without losing the entitlement.
When the metric lies
The size of the gap depends on the settlement cycle for the security and on the trading board the deal was struck in. Buying on the record date confers no entitlement, however strongly intuition says otherwise.
Also known as: ex-dividend timing